Process of covering wire.



PATENTED AUG. 11, 1903.

R. VARLEY.

d A N l No MDBL.

UNITED STATES' Patented August 1l, i903. f

PATENT EEICE.

RICHARD VARLEY, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO VARLEY DUPLEX MAGNET COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

PROCESS oF oovERlNe WIRE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters PatentdNo. 736,178, o lated August 11, 1903.

V Application tiled May 20, 1903.. Serial No.15'7,910. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RTCHAED VAELEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Providence, in the c ounty of Providence and State 5 of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Processes of Covering Wire, of which the following is a full,

clear, and exact description.

This invention is an improved process of fo covering wire. e

' l The object of the invention is to providea process whereby Wire can be covered or insulated with a delicate or fragile material which is not easily manipulated in mechanical processes without the annoyance of and delay incident to repeated breakings or injury of the material. For instance, in covering wire with asbestos in sheet or strip `form the material, which should be moist zo when applied to the wire, so that it will' it and adhere closely thereto, is very tender and delicate, so much so, in fact, that when a spool of it is swung around the Wire in order to lay thereon aspiral covering the strip often z 5 breaks and causes considerable loss of time,

besides turning out a poor product. In accordance with my process I provide the strip of asbestos with a reinforcing-backing consisting of a corresponding stripof paper nor 3o other suitable fabric, which Whenfjoined to thelface of the asbestos to form, in effect, a single strip can be handled and manipulated in a machine without the disadvantages mentioned.

To illustrate one way in which the invention may be carried out, I have shown in` tail of a part of the machine.

Asbestos paper, which is obtained in large rolls A, Fig. 1, is first Wound conjointly with a similar weblor sheet of paper or other fabric (indicated at B) on a common spindle or core C. In this operation the asbestos is moist, so that the paper will adhere to it, and,

`a circular internal stationary rack fi. shaft h2 of the pinion is a spool j. driven from the counter-shaft by means of 85 if necessary, the paper may carry a sizing or other adhesive material to unite the two sheets together. The nature of such adhesive material should, however, besuch that by moistening the two sheets can be easily separated. The large sheets are then passed through a suitable slitting or shearing machine, (indicated in Fig. 2,) wherein a a'nd a' t lare two sets of gangs of disks, between which 6o the double sheets are introduced andwhich cut the same up into a series of double ribbons b,`which are led to independent hubs or cores c on a common winding-spindle shown in dotted lines, thus producing a quantity of the narrow double material in disk form convenient for handling.

The covering-machine consists of a counter-shaft e, connected by suitable gearing e to drive a rotary table f, through the center 7o` Aand hub of which is a passage f for the Wire g to becovered. This table is adapted to support in a horizontal position one of the s disks of the double ribbon-like m aterial,which is held in place thereon by suitable springjaws f2 engaging notches in the hub of the disk or in any other suitable way. Concentrically above the table on another partof the frame is mounted a large gear-wheel h, having a hollow axis, which carries near its 8o edge a vertical bearing h, in which there is a shaft h2, carrying a pinion t', engaging with On the Gear his the wheel lo and pinion 7c'. Above the centerof the circular rack at a suitable distance is a horizontal shaft l, on which there is a winding spool or reel Z', driven by worm-gear '1n and spur-gear m from the counter-shaft. Be- 9u low the machine is suitably mounted a reel o of bare Wire to be covered. The strand g therefrom leads upward through the table f' and spool of covering material thereon, thence through the center of gear h and rack z", and linally to the take-up reel Z. The loose end of the double asbestos and paper ribbon from the coil on the table is applied to the wire with the asbestos side against the wire and the paper outside.' Assuming a certain porroo tion of the wire reaching above the circular rack has been covered, the end of the paper strip there exposed is peeled from the asbestos and carried to the axis of the spool, where it is fastened. When the machine is in motion, the table f, carrying the coil of covering material, and the gear h are rotated, While the Wire is drawn at a certain proportionate speed from the reel o to the reel Z. At the same time the spool j being carried around by the gear h, with its pinion h2 in engagement with the circular rack, is also rotated on its own axis, and therefore has a double movement. The covering of asbestos and paper is applied in spiral form to the wire as it moves along, the asbestos and paper being more or less moist to enable the former to adhere to the wire. In this operation the integrity of the asbestos is maintained by the fact that the paper sustains and supports it and resists such strains as would ordinarily Sever or tear it. the spool j the paper strip is peeled or unwound from the Wire by the motion of revolution of the spool, and the slack in the paper created thereby is taken up by the motion of rotation of the spool. The wire then passes on with only its asbestos covering to the storing-reel l.

My invention is not restricted to processes involving the spiral winding of the asbestos strip around the wire, but extends to any other process of applying fragile material to a wire. For instance, in an application for patent tiled by'J ames C. Anderson,`Serial No. 154,922, a process is described of insulating or covering a flat ribbon-like wire with flat ribbon-like paper by folding the edges of the paper around the edges of the wire. It is found in applying asbestos paper to the Wire in accordance with the Anderson process the idea contained in the present invention is useful to prevent the breakage or injury of the asbestos during the covering process. In other words, my invention is broad enough to cover the idea of reinforcing a fragile insulating material with another material for the purpose of protecting it during the covering operation and then removing the reinforcing material from the covered wire.

Whether the reinforcing material is removed from the insulating material immediatel)7 after the latter has been applied to the On reaching the level of `wire is not an important feature. The wire covered with both asbestos and the paper or equivalent materials may be stored away on reels in bulk until such time as the Wire is to be made up into magnet-coils or other apparatus, when' the reinforcing material may be removed by the process described or any other process simultaneously with the formation of the wire into its final shape.

Having described my invention, I claim- 1. The process of covering wire which consists in simultaneously applying thereto two materials, one of which is a support for the other and then removing the supporting material.

2. The process of covering wire which consists in winding a double ribbon-like covering thereon and then unwinding one portion of the double material.

3. The process of covering wire which consists in placing a fragile material in sheet or strip form face to face with a reinforcing material of similar form and then applying the double strip or sheet to the Wire as one sheet or strip, the reinforcing-strip being on the outside, and finally removing the reinforcingstrip.

4. The process of covering wire with asbestos which consists in forming the asbestos into strips or ribbons and reinforcing the same with a similar strip or ribbon of other material attached thereto face to face, then wrapping, folding or otherwise covering the wire with the double material and then removing the reinforcing material, substantial-1y as described.

5. The process of covering Wire, consisting in rolling together a sheet or web of asbestos and a sheet or web of paper to form a double sheet or web, then slitting the double sheet or web into a plurality of double strips or ribbons, then applying said double strips or ribbons to the wire and finally removing the paper from the Wire.'

In witness whereof I subscribe my signature in presence of two witnesses.

RICHARD VARLEY.V

Witnesses:

WILLETT CHADWICK, J. GEO. MEYERS. 

